The bill was likened to a death penalty to the internet economy by DailyTech and other sites -- the bills looked to create a takedown system where any site found to be hosting user generated content pointing to infringing content (say a URL to a torrent) could be immediately taken down.

This would have been a crippling blow to Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Google Inc. (GOOG), online news, and any other site that allows user-generated content, as a malicious user (e.g. a prankster or competitor) could intentionally plant an offending URL and then contact the regulators to take down the site for weeks at a time. The measure would essentially have ended all American online commerce, online searching, and online news ,if enforced.

The "death" of SOPA comes just hours after President Barack Obama made headlines when his close advisors came out against SOPA. Some heralded the opposition as a hint that the President might veto the bill to prevent catastrophic economic damage.

The stalling of SOPA is only a partial victory, as the similar "PROTECT IP Act" (PIPA) (S.968) is moving towards a vote in the Senate.

Rep. Issa who has also recently made a name for himself -- in part -- by opposing President Obama's strict fuel economy mandates, says he will continue to work with advocacies and with America's tech luminaries like Google to fight PIPA in the Senate.

He remarks, "Right now, the focus of protecting the Internet needs to be on the Senate where Majority Leader Reid has announced his intention to try to move similar legislation in less than two weeks."

Is this either a surprise or a concern? I guess it would depend on how it's done. If they're browsing public sites where indicators of a threat to security are likely, that's the equivalent of a police officer walking a beat. If they're hacking these sites for private messages or inciting comments (entrapment, essentially), that would be a problem.

Like so many things about national security, the key is in how it's done. So yes, I'd love to see an article about this news.